Tuesday, 17 February 2026

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (17:35): (2302) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Planning, and what I seek is for the minister to join me and perhaps Ms Crozier in a walk around Ashburton to see the boundaries of where she is proposing to intensely increase density and height. Eight-storey heights are massive increases in suburban Ashburton. Really, there are only two-storey properties there now, and the state government is actively proposing under its plans eight-storey developments. Even the area that is not the central hub, the catchment zone around, will be four storeys, in many cases even up to six storeys, so that is a very intense development. There will be thousands, likely tens of thousands, of extra people put into this area under the state government’s proposals. There is no plan for additional police. The police station has been closed. There is no plan for additional parkland. There is no plan for additional school capacity. There is no plan for the additional transport that will be required. So I say the minister has got this very wrong. The minister needs to come to Ashburton. She needs to see this for herself.

I know Mr Fregon may have communicated with her, but he is weak on this – not prepared to stand up for the local community. He has not been prepared to actively advocate for his area. I think he said with the high-rise stuff that not everyone wants to live among the gum trees. That is what he said in Parliament about these dense, high-rise developments. He said not everyone wants to live among the gum trees. Well, let me just tell you, many in this part of the City of Boroondara, in this particular part of the Ashwood electorate, actually do want to live on large properties with trees and proper canopy around them. They do not want to live in eight-storey dense developments, and they do not want to live in eight-storey dense developments where this is forced on them without consultation with the community or consultation with the council.

The council would be very happy to work with the government to actually get a better outcome in this area, but there is no sign that the government is prepared to work with the council or community. We will be convening forums in the area over the coming period. But my request today of the Minister for Planning is to come and meet with me in Ashburton, do a walk around and actually see the challenges that are required here and why her policy of forced high-rise development will lead to a poor outcome in the way she has presented it. It is not satisfactory; it is arrogant. It is a government overriding local communities, and it is time she came and actually saw the community – (Time expired)